Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

Paul Bucknor (with micro-phone at right) makes an announcement at the launch of the Flashpoint Film Festival 2006, held at the Ashanti Restaurant, Hope Gardens, St. Andrew, recently. - Photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

The 2006 staging of the Flashpoint Film Festival was officially launched at the Ashanti Restaurant recently, with hopes of lighting the way toward a film revolution in Jamaica. The festival is slated to take place at The Caves, Negril (on the West End), from December 1-3.

The festival was founded last year by the late Greer-Ann Saulter, along with Bertram Saulter (both of whom were designers and co-owners of The Caves) and Paul Bucknor (founder of Firefly Films). This year's festival seems to offer a wider range of films, and the very important element of competition has been added to the festival.

Awards to be given

Seven awards will be given out at this year's festival. In tribute to the late Greer-Ann Saulter, the festival's main award, the Greer-Ann Saulter Award for Most Popular Feature Film, was created. The Final Draft Award will go to the Best Screenplay and awards will also be given to the Best Short Film, as well as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

The workshop element of the festival also returns. This year Flashpoint offers workshops on acting, screenwriting, documentary film-making, how to make a short film, guerrilla film-making in Jamaica and financing independent films. Both the acting and documentary film-making workshops are sponsored by Jampro, while the guerrilla film-making workshop is sponsored by Firefly Films.

The launch featured the previews of seven of the films to be screened at the festival. From the trailers, it seems that this year Firefly has happened upon a varied fare in style, theme and content, even though the films surround Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Films featured

Kai Wakeling shows a bit of what is in store at The Caves, Negril, from December 1-3.

The first three were Better Must Come, Scoundrel and The Candy Shop from the Firefly camp. Scoundrel and The Candy Shop both appear to be comedies, while Better Must Come is a political piece that appears hinged on the bipartisan divide.

Lower City (Brazil), East of Havana (Cuba), Almost Heaven (Germany and Jamaica) and Perry Henzell's second film, No Place Like Home, were also previewed. The festival has several other films on its roster, including Sister God from Trinidad and Life and Debt.

The musical element of the festival this year, however, seems quite emaciated compared to last year's event as only Kai Wakeling and DJ Slim have been named as participants. Tickets range from $1,500 for a day pass to $3,500 for the weekend, while the gala premiere is $2,000.